From The All Good Things Come To Those Who Wait Dept.
Back in June of 2017, I posted this piece:
Looking For Eustace
Here’s something I’ve done maybe just once before: ask Ink Spill visitors if anyone out there has something I’ve looked for for years but have yet to find. This time it’s the miniature (about 3 1/2 inches high, I believe) Eustace Tilley pictured here. There were 500 manufactured by Sebastian Miniatures back in 1949 (apparently there’s a newer version, from 1981, with a black base. Only 6 of those were made). For me, this 1949 Tilley has become the Holy Grail of New Yorker “stuff” (the little bit of information I found about it comes from a book, The Sebastian Miniature Collection by Dr. Glenn Johnson).
If anyone out there has one and would be willing to trade for a couple of my New Yorker original drawings, please contact me.
And now, the Update…
Today’s mail included a mystery box. Inside the box, carefully surrounded by bubble wrap, was another box (shown left), and inside that box, carefully wrapped in tissue paper, was, well, my “Holy Grail of New Yorker ‘stuff'”: the Eustace Tilley Sebastian miniature.
The mystery of this Tilley — how he came to me — took about an hour or so to solve. I discovered that Stephen Nadler, of Attempted Bloggery had gifted it to the Spill‘s archives. As I wrote to Mr. Nadler after learning he was the gifter: “Wow Wow Wow!!!!!”
As you see below, Eustace has made himself right at home.
–Thank you, Stephen.
More Tilley:
Eustace Tilley, the creation of Rea Irvin, has long been the New Yorker‘s unoffical (or is it official?) mascot. He appeared on the magazine’s inaugural cover (left).
Rea Irvin’s entry on the Spill‘s A-Z:
Rea Irvin (pictured above. Self portrait above from Meet the Artist) *Born, San Francisco, 1881; died in the Virgin Islands,1972. Irvin was the cover artist for the New Yorker’s first issue, February 21, 1925. He was the magazine’s first art editor, holding the position from 1925 until 1939 when James Geraghty assumed the title. Irvin became art director and remained in that position until William Shawn succeeded Harold Ross. Irvin’s last original work for the magazine was the magazine’s cover of July 12, 1958. The February 21, 1925 Eustace Tilley cover had been reproduced every year on the magazine’s anniversary until 1994, when R. Crumb’s Tilley-inspired cover appeared. Tilley has since reappeared, with other artists substituting from time-to-time.
Even More Tilley: here’s a newyorker.com piece, “Tilley Over Time” written in 2008 for the magazine’s 83rd birthday.